CBM is introducing the market-based Reference Exchange Rate starting from February 5, 2019, which is simply a snapshot of actual market rates for the given day

 

THE CBM is currently setting the Reference Exchange Rate based on the cut-off rate of its two-way foreign exchange auction, which was introduced in 2012, in order to facilitate the development of the foreign exchange market. The two-way foreign exchange auction worked well to help foreign exchange market development and price discovery. The size of the interbank market increased from just USD 0.01 billion in 2013-2014 financial year to USD 2 billion in 2017-2018 financial year and continues developing (see Figure 1). Therefore, the Central Bank of Myanmar is moving forward to a new step of development: to determine Reference Exchange Rate as market-based weighted average rate in line with the international best practices of the central banks.

The Reference Exchange Rate of the Myanmar Kyat against the U.S. Dollar will be calculated as the volume weighted average exchange rate of interbank and bank-customer deals during the day.
The CBM will also change publication time of Reference Exchange Rate to 4:00 PM, when all data for the day is available. In the current system, the CBM uses last business day’s weighted average rate to set reference rate in the morning, which can create misalignment from current market exchange rate, especially after long holidays or weekends. New mechanism will help to avoid this misalignment, as reference rate will be published in the same day.
To promote public awareness, the CBM will change reference rate publication form on the first page of its website, where public can see interbank and bank-customer market exchange rates and market weighted average rate, which will be same as reference rate (see table 1).
• CBM announces daily Reference Exchange Rate every working day at 4:00 PM, based on deals between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
• Methodology on determination of Reference Exchange Rate is available here
• MMK Exchange rate for other currencies are available here ( forex.cbm.gov.mm )
The Central Bank of Myanmar also calculates and publishes the Reference Exchange Rates of other foreign currencies of Myanmar Kyat (cross-exchange rates), which will be determined according to the rate on international markets or the issuer country’s domestic interbank foreign exchange market.
It should be noted that the Reference Exchange Rate is an indicative (not obligatory) rate. Participants in the foreign exchange market are not required to use it in their foreign exchange transactions. To settle Customs obligations, accounting and for statistical purposes, the Reference Exchange Rate of the previous day can be used.
To increase data availability for the public, the CBM will publish new data on daily Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) and monthly Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER).
One of the objectives of the CBM’s foreign exchange operations is to smooth excessive short-term volatility of the exchange rate. Therefore, the CBM is working to develop foreign exchange operations to better serve this objective and dampen excessive volatility in the market as needed. The CBM will communicate more details about the new instrument as necessary.

The Central Bank of Myanmar
Ref: The Global New Light of Myanmar